Historically the Ballarat Amateur Radio Group (BARG) conducted “on demand” entry level courses and assessment for people wishing to gain a Foundation Licence/Qualification entry into Amateur Radio. This link provides some information about this level: http://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundation/about/

During 2020 and 2021, most of our activities were curtailed due to the medical emergency and imposed restrictions. This had a major impact from which we’ve not really recovered.

So What’s possible now?

In the absence of face to face instruction, you can begin and complete your journey through various forms of self study and we have been privileged to guide people using email and telephone contact.

General Flow for becoming qualified:

Get hold of training material
Ask questions for clarification if necessary
Do some typical quizzes that covers all the material
When happy/comfortable, organise an assessment session ( with any ACMA assessor) , can be face to face or via video link session.
After assessment, assessor uploads results to the ACMA,
When successful, the candidate pays about $30 to the ACMA for a Certificate of Recognition.
Once candidate has this then they pay about $40ish to the ACMA for a callsign ( eg VK3??? )
Once received, candidate is qualified to press the PTT button..

There are many resources being produced by individuals and clubs, each has their own focus but all aim to provide a support mechanism towards an Amateur Radio qualification.

The following resource may help you enter the exciting world of Amateur Radio:

A Free Online Sample Assessment Environment (VKHAMED)

This resource also provides information in relation to the Amateur Radio hobby and the requirements to gain access. There are mentions and links to many other support resources available on the web, too many to list here.

This is a unique sample assessment environment. It is relevant to each of the Australian Amateur radio qualification levels and is specifically aimed at those who have completed their study and are preparing for the real assessment. It is also a worthwhile starting point to find out what you might already know.

This assessment environment differs to other available “trial assessments” in that it:

Presents typical questions with a multichoice answers, similar to the real assessment process.
Provides instant feedback as to the answer selected being correct or otherwise.
Provides additional feedback information to each answer, and so has a reinforcement and teaching aspect to the function.
All Amateur Radio levels (Foundation, Standard, and Advanced) are catered for.
All components of assessment (Foundation: Theory&Regulations, Standard: Theory, Advanced: Theory, Standard & Advanced Regulations, and Practical) are covered.

vkhamed.wordpress.com

FURTHER INFORMATION for training possibilities and assessment please contact directly:

or send an email to our main address Barg (at) BARG (dot) ORG (dot) AU

*NOTE: from the 19th of February 2024, the responsibility for Amateur Radio Qualifications reverted to the ACMA. You can see all the official documentation at these links.

The ACMA One Stop Shop for all things Amateur Radio is here.

This link is the ACMA Amateur Radio Resources page.

2026-04-19